The wife of Virginia gunman James Hodgkinson who targeted a Republican party baseball practice match on Wednesday and critically injured GOP congressman Steve Scalise has spoken publicly for the first time about the shooting, telling reporters: “I can’t believe he did this.”

At an emotional press conference outside the couple’s home in Belleville, Illinois, Sue Hodgkinson struggled for words to describe events running up to the shooting and said her husband, known also as Tom, had told her he had gone to the nation’s capital to “work on taxes”.